We are witnessing one potential future scenario for America unfolding in Venezuela. The country is deep in an economic crisis having experienced the highest devaluation rate in the world after continued monetary devaluations. Devastating food shortages, lack of medicine in hospitals, power cuts, record rates of violent crime and inflamed communities have become commonplace fixtures. The current Venezuelan government, terribly out of touch with their people, takes no responsibility for its internal failures. Acting like historically-ignorant elite sociopaths, the directives handed down from Venezuelan authorities is to crush decent, control media and continue with business as usual.

Polls indicated most Venezuelans want current socialist President Nicolás Maduro – who many blame for the country’s downfall – out of office. Repeated attempts for a recall referendum have been ignored while the country remains under a state of emergency activated by Maduro. Mainstream media in the US has spotlighted Venezuela’s continued slide into a failed state.

In July, The Wall Street Journal reported “Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro put the armed forces in charge of a new food supply system aimed at alleviating crippling shortages, ceding yet more power to a military apparatus that is already involved in everything from banking to imports.”

In August, Reuters reported “Under pressure from local residents after Maduro shut the western border with Colombian border in 2015, Venezuelan authorities allowed several temporary openings for similar shopping excursions in July. Colombia last month halted those trips after more than 100,000 people crossed in a single weekend.”

Prioritizing its debt payments over tackling its food shortages, Venezuela recently issued a decree for its citizens to be enlisted in forced farming brigades. The decree establishes that people working in public and private companies can be called upon to join state-sponsored organizations specialized in the production of food.

In an effort to stoke the revolutionary spirit brewing within the Venezuelan people, the country’s journalists, online activists and local organizers have leveraged their voices and creativity to change the trajectory of the country. As the world continues to witness, in the age of information, heavy handed government and institutional censorship regularly backfires in spectacular fashion. Technology is leveling the playing field between authoritarian regimes and the populations they abuse. It is now possible for one person, with the correct message, at the correct moment to topple the most tyrannical dictator or reprehensible government.

Born out of Venezuela’s struggle, a politically charged video went viral last weekend after it was published on the social media accounts of opposition party Justice First (Primero Justicia). The three activists who were involved in producing the video were arrested by Venezuela’s intelligence services and are being held at a military base on charges of inciting rebellion.

Fusion.net writes "The 60-second dramatization features a girl who finds her mother sick in bed, and texts her dad to say there’s no medicine. She then opens the near-empty fridge and texts her dad again, saying she’ll have to wait in a long line outside the supermarket to see if she can find some cheap food."

“Dad, please remember that the people you are being told to repress are going through the same as us,” the girl says in her final text. “This cannot last, and you know it.

Weeks earlier, out of touch President Maduro traveled from the capital, Caracas, to Margarita Island off Venezuela’s northern coast to inaugurate a number of new public housing units and give a televised address…at least that was the plan. His inability (or arrogance) to understand his people or empathize with the reality of what’s occurring in his country led to another citizen-filmed video that went viral. During Maduro’s speech, he denounced his opponents’ calls for his removal from office, calling them “vampires” and saying they were preparing for violence. His stance is a common tactic by authoritarian regimes to justify their military crackdowns on the enemy’s of the state who end up being families and journalists attempting to expose truth and corruption. Maduro’s appearance and speech was greeted by a mob of angry, nonviolent pot-banging protesters. A grainy cell phone video shows Maduro jogging through a crowd as residents loudly bang on pots and hurl obscenities while they give chase. The website editor who posted the video, that went viral, was promptly arrested.

​The common spirit of the people’s will for independence and freedom is continually being activated when those who seek power and control attempt to subjugate groups or populations. The inborn reflex action to resist abuse at the hands of governments, corporations and individuals is the stopgap measure inherent within the DNA of humanity. We all possess this generational gift built upon and continually strengthened by the actions of our ancestors. All it takes is the right combination of external events to forever activate the collective momentum to speak truth to power and halt the gears of any system refusing to accept the will of free humanity.